Hatch asks Obama to have BCS probed for antitrust-law violations

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, asked President Barack Obama on Wednesday to order the Justice Department to investigate whether college football's Bowl Championship Series violates antitrust laws.

"Mr. President, as you have publicly stated on multiple occasions, the BCS system is in dire need of reform," Hatch wrote.

He said that after reviewing testimony from a Senate hearing on the BCS earlier this year, "I believe a strong case can be made that the BCS is in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Therefore, I respectfully request that the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division look into this matter."

Hatch then outlined in a 10-page letter what he says is the legal case against the BCS.

Hatch noted that the champions of six "privileged" conferences receive automatic berths to play in one of the five big-money BCS bowl games each year. Excluded are five other conferences, which still have a chance at an at-large berth if they are ranked highly enough in several polls.

"Of the 10 available opportunities to participate in the BCS bowls, six have already been allotted to privileged conferences before the season even begins," Hatch wrote.

"However, for all practical purposes, nine of the 10 slots are ultimately reserved for the privileged conferences due to the selection criteria utilized by the BCS," he said.

For example, he said that last year both the University of Utah and Boise State University were undefeated. Only Utah played in a BCS bowl, even though Boise State had a better ranking and record than many "privileged conference" schools selected. And Utah was excluded from the BCS championship game, while schools with worse records played in it.

Because of such arrangements, "During the past four seasons, privileged conferences received more than $492 million, or 87.4 percent of the total BCS revenue," he said.

The nonprivileged conferences, accounting for about half of all colleges, split less than $62 million, or 12.6 percent of BCS revenue.

Hatch also argued that the system has essentially created two classes of college teams in the Football Bowl Subdivision — BCS teams for the privileged conferences, and non-BCS teams for everyone else.

"It has been argued that this false impression influences the decisions of pollsters, television networks and sponsors, ensuring inequitable treatment," Hatch wrote.

Because the BCS uses subjective polls to select teams for its bowls, "some evidence suggests that this false impression has led to a self-fulfilling prophecy that nonprivileged teams do not perform at the same level as privileged conference teams."